Examples Of Greed In The Great Gatsby

Though he was hurt immensely by Daisy, Gatsby also embodied the greed and selfishness that came with the aspiration of living out the American Dream. Gatsby threw lavish parties but didn’t bother to host them or be a part of them. His only motive behind these parties was his hope that Daisy would “wander into one of his parties, some night” (Fitzgerald 79). He wanted Daisy to know that he had finally acquired the wealth that Daisy wanted so badly. Gatsby believed that the American Dream offered him “ limitless freedom, wealth, and power, and [this] enabled [him] to buy the love of a woman who personifies [his] aspirations" (Roberts). Gatsby believed that he could win over the woman of his dreams through money because to Daisy, money meant

Gatsby puts on a facade and tells everyone that he inherited his money, but in reality Gatsby has other means by which he earns his money for the sake of Daisy. He stoops to a level that shows that he has no care for his morals and he will go to any extent if it means making Daisy happy and earning money. He commits multiple crimes including buying “side-street drug-stores in Chicago and [selling] grain alcohol over the counter” (Fitzgerald 133). He doesn’t care about getting in trouble with the law because he is no longer living for himself, and it seems like he is only living for Daisy, who embodies the wealthy lifestyle Gatsby has wanted his whole life. Gatsby got rich out of a sense of “desperation and crazy hopefulness, out of refusing to get over a broken heart and give up the love of his life” (Voegeli). Gatsby knew that the only way to get Daisy back was to become rich, but in doing this, he lost his values and his morals in hopes of gaining what he thought would make him happier. Gatsby even knows that what he is doing is wrong because when he told Nick that Meyer Wolfsheim is a “gambler, he hesitated” (Fitzgerald 73) Gatsby knows that his ways are wrong which is why he conceals them from the public eye, but internally, Gatsby is going against the morals he has set for himself. To Gatsby, “money and authority is the most important to [him]. [He] oppress[es] the public or

Myrtle downright ignores her own husband, “walking through her husband as if he were a ghost” and approaching Tom with a smile on her face (Fitzgerald 25-26). Though Myrtle and her husband have been married for a long time, Myrtle never got the money and status she wanted. As soon as she met Tom, all she could see was the money that surrounded him. In fact, she even changed her clothes around Tom, “attired in an elaborate afternoon dress of cream colored chiffon, which gave out a continual rustle as she swept about the room” (Fitzgerald 30). Myrtle often tries to come off richer than she is, proven by her various outfit changes in a small party where she wants to “prove herself a woman of Daisy's status through a melange of color, fashion, and commodities” (Goldsmith). Myrtle has a sickening obsession with living a luxury life and being the wife of a man who has respect in the community. With her current husband, she is not receiving that and is instead living a poor life in the Valley of Ashes. She tries to pretend like she fits in with the people of East Egg, ordering others around and becoming agitated when she has to “keep after them all the time” (Fitzgerald 32). Myrtle tries to order people around who she thinks are lower in status all in hopes of “[attempting] to craft a commodity aesthetic that aligns her with